Alan Jackson Won’t Stray From Country Sound, Tips Hat to Taylor Swift

Alan Jackson has had great success as a tried and true country artist. Newer acts, like Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert, have scored their success by straying from the old-fashioned country sound. But Jackson says he won’t go that route. The 53-year-old country legend plans to hold steady with his down South sound.

“I don’t think they’d cross me over,” he tells The Boot. “They tried that years ago. They came to me once and wanted me to take something off, and I wouldn’t do it because I didn’t want to change my sound to be on pop radio.”

It’s not that Jackson thinks there’s anything wrong with a country pop hybrid — he just insists that his fans don’t want him to make that type of music. He happens to be an admirer of Swift, and admitted to The Boot that when he first heard her single, ‘Teardrops on My Guitar,’ he told his wife that it would be a big hit.

In fact, Jackson is such a fan of the country cutie that he hand-selected her to cover ‘Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)’ at his 2011 induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Jackson’s traditional country music has earned him dozens of awards, including a 2011 Grammy award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals, thanks to his role in ‘As She’s Walking Away’ with the Zac Brown Band. He has also received several nods from the American Music Awards, the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music.

At the 2002 CMAs, Jackson set a record for having the most nominations in a single year with 10. Many of them were for the song ‘Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)’ and it also brought his career total up to the second number of most nominations ever, just trailing George Strait. ‘Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)’ also was nominated for a Grammy for Song of the Year.